My first official organized ride of the year was this last weekend - the 2010 Tour de Blast. The ride starts in the town of Toutle, WA and follows the Spirit Lake Highway up to the Johnston Ridge Observatory. I knew it would be a tough ride with about 7K worth of elevation gain over 84 miles, just what the doctor ordered in my preparation for the Mt. Shasta ride in August. What added to the toughness of the ride was the almost constant rain and near freezing temperaturs at the observatory.
I started at about 6:40 AM, thinking that the climbing would start almost immediately. I was wrong. The first 12 miles or so was flat and then for the next 4 is was only slightly up. I was able to climb in the big front ring with no problem. I stopped at the mile 17 rest stop to respond to the call of nature. I then heard one rider say to the other, "ready to have some fun." I knew it was on. The climbing started almost immediately. For the next 15 miles, the road averaged a little over 5% grade. At one point, it was raining, I am chasing down dark figures up the road that become other riders, I look up the road thinking and even saying out loud, "this has to end sometime soon" only to see around the next turn more uphill. At mile 32, the up hill turned to down hill. On most days, this is part of the payoff of the climbing. Not today - I froze on the way down. I was soaked from the rain on the outer clothes and sweated through the base layer from the climbing. I was so happy to get to mile 36 or so to start the last climb up to the observatory. The only real challenging part of the climb was the final mile where the road hit 7 to 8%. I was third to the top. Not that all the riders started at the same time but no one passed me on the way up and I was able to get around quite a few riders. Another payoff of climbs usually is the view - not today as all I got to see was the clouds. No view of the crater at Mt. St. Helens or the surrounding landscape. I can tell it is beautiful from the glimpses that I was able to catch every now and then.
The down hill was worse than the first since it was colder at 4200'. The real payoff was the final 12 miles. I time trialed it in and average 22 MPH. It felt good to end all that climbing with some speed workout. All in all, I accomplished what I wanted to do on the ride - get in some long climbs and see how I responded. The work I have been doing is paying off. I didn't suffer on the climbs, just on the descents due to the temperature. Shasta is only a 7 weeks away. I hope to redo the ride next year but with less freezing.
